Westport in Brief!
EverythingWestport.com
Sunday, January 15, 2017
Photos | EverythingWestport.com except as noted
CPC unanimously approves large slate of 2017
funding requests.
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Robert A. Maltais EverythingWestport.com Wednesday, January 11, 2017
Mr. Maltais was born in Fall River, son of
the late Roland and Pamela (Genereux) Maltais. Prior to his retirement, he worked as the
Building Inspector for the Town of Westport. He had a strong commitment to
and was part of the creation of the Westport Council on Aging. He was a
communicant of St. George Church, Westport and enjoyed spending time with his
family and friends. Survivors along with his wife include his 2 sons: Robert A. Maltais, Jr. and his wife Debra of Westport and Dennis D.
Maltais and his wife Jeannette of Acushnet; his
daughter: Susan A. (Maltais)Tessier and her husband
Roger of Fall River; his 2 step-sons: Robert J. Covel,
Jr. of New Bedford and Gary R. Covel and his wife Anabela of Dartmouth; his step-daughter: Donna A. Covel of Fall River; a brother: Maurice Maltais and his companion Myrna of Fall River; a sister:
Paulette Desmarais and her husband Raymond of
Rochester; grandchildren: Carey Damian, Melissa Maltais-Avila,
Rachel Maltais, Sara Maltais,
Hollie Maltais-Vieira, Roger Tessier, Jr., Philip
Tessier, Nathan Tessier, Bradley Tessier, Jamie Botelho,
Shayna Oliveira, Corey Covel and Tayla Covel; along with many
great grandchildren, nieces and nephews. He was the father of the late Michael B. Maltais
and brother of the late Andre Maltais and Lucille
Costa. Funeral to which relatives and friends are invited will be Friday,
January 13, 2017 from the Potter Funeral Home at 9:00 A.M. followed by a Mass
of Christian Burial at St. George Church, Westport at 10:00 A.M. Calling hours will be Thursday from 5:00 – 8:00 p.m. Interment will be
in Beech Grove Cemetery, Westport. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to Hope Hospice and
Palliative Care, 1085 North Main Street, Providence, RI 02904. Rita P. Lafrance EverythingWestport.com Wednesday, January 11, 2017
In 1946, Rita, Aime
and Aime's brothers, Norman and Roger bought
White's Spa on Pleasant Street in Fall River. It all started with four booths
and six stools and later the Lafrances began White
Spa Caterers. In 1955 they purchased the former Lamplighter
Restaurant at the Narrows in Westport, naming it White's Family Restaurant.
With Rita's everyday presence over the past 61 years, White's has hosted and
employed generations of Greater Fall River families. She leaves a son, Richard L. Lafrance and his wife Muriel; grandchildren, Rachel
Fellows and Charles, R. Christian Lafrance and
Janna, Eric Lafrance and Tyler Carlson, Sean Lafrance and Jacki, all of Westport; 10
great-grandchildren, Emma, Molli, Ross, Samuel,
Maggie, Eleanor, Leah, William, Grant and Hannah; a great-great-grandson,
Liam; sisters, Joan Durand of Swansea and Patricia Ann Pettey
of Westport and nieces and nephews. She was the daughter of the late James
Patrick and Mary Louise (Crowell) Fallon and the sister of the late Kathleen
Compton, Mary Marchand, Dorothy Trinidade
and Jean Dvorak. Her funeral Mass will be held Saturday at 10:00
a.m. at St. John the Baptist Church, Westport. Interment will be private. Visitation, Friday from 3:30 to 8:00 p.m. at
the Auclair Funeral Home, 690 So. Main Street, Fall
River. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Lafrance
Family Scholarship Fund, Bishop Connolly High School, 373 Elsbree
Street. Fall River, MA 02720. Online guest book at www.AuclairFuneralHome.com. CPC unanimously approves large slate of 2017 funding requests. $350,000 if approved by town meeting will be used to purchase a 19.8
acre portion of St. Vincent de Paul former youth camp. 11 applications total $1.55 million in town funding. EverythingWestport.com Sunday, January 15, 2017
Special Correspondent to
EverythingWestport.com WESTPORT – Unanimous votes on 11 applications for Community
Preservation Act funds in the coming fiscal year were taken by the Community
Preservation Committee (CPC) following a Jan. 12 public hearing. The vote
clears the way for action on the funding requests by voters at the annual
town meeting in May.
The biggest chunk of funding being recommended by the committee is a
$600,000 request for open space funds being made by the Westport Youth
Athletic Association (WYAA) to help develop a youth
sports complex planned off American Legion Highway. The alliance of youth
sports leagues plans to build a half dozen baseball and softball diamonds and
three soccer fields at the site. WYAA
officials said that the money being requested would be used to supplement
association funds needed finish the access road, create parking areas, and
start clearing the playing fields at the town-owned Santos Farm off Route
177, being leased to the organization by the town for a token $1 per year.
Picture courtesy of WYAA The town has already invested a considerable amount of CPA funding on
the former Leonard Santos farm, purchased in 2004 with $500,000 in Community
Preservation Act funds and $250,000 of Agricultural and Open Space Trust
funding. Another $522,000 in CPA funds was approved in 2012 to help finance
the first phase of the project. Inset: WYAA
officials said that the money being requested would be used to supplement
association funds needed finish the access road, create parking areas, and
start clearing the playing fields at the town-owned Santos Farm off Route
177, Last year, the WYAA launched a $400,000
capital campaign to help fund the construction phase of the “Fields at the
Farm” project. Work is expected to resume this summer, if voters approve the
current funding request. The CPC also voiced strong support for a $350,000 request from the
Westport Land Conservation Trust (WLCT), to be used to fund a conservation
restriction on a portion of the St. Vincent de Paul property on Adamsville
Road to be used for passive recreation. The trust has an agreement to buy the
entire 82-acre site from the Diocese of Fall River for $1.55 million, and is
negotiating the resale of a 19.8-acre portion of the property to the town for
park and recreation uses as part of the deal.
Above:
Panoramic view of the former St. Vincent de Paul youth camp under
consideration for CPC funding. Photo
| EverythingWestport.com Click on image to enlarge. The town’s purchase of the conservation restriction would guarantee
public access to a large parcel of woodlands laced with trails that would be
maintained by the land trust, located behind the former Catholic day camp,
said WLCT representative Steve Sloane. The property was most recently used as
a group living facility for troubled teens, but has been vacant for the past
decade, he indicated. The trust has already received a commitment of $350,000 in Agricultural
Preservation Trust Fund money to help finance the purchase; it was suggested
that a portion of the open fields on the site contain good soils and would
make a good site for community gardens. The sale of two smaller parcels of frontage with existing buildings is
also being considered to help raise the needed funds for the purchase, Sloane
indicated. The town is likely to make an offer to purchase those two parcels
as well, he said. The Recreation Commission is endorsing the town’s support of the “core
camp” purchase because one of the existing buildings houses a basketball
court, and another contains a weight room and climbing wall that could also
be used by residents without further investment of town funds, said Tim
Gillespie, the commission’s representative on the CPC. There is also a
baseball diamond on the property, he noted. The CPC also approved a recommendation to spend $140,000 for the
purchase of a conservation restriction on the 15.4-acre farm at the corner of
Horseneck and Hix Bridge Roads owned by Robert Russell.
The farm is surrounded by other pieces of protected farmland, according to
Sloane. The committee is also recommending $292,500 in community housing
funding requested by the Westport Affordable Housing Trust Fund to underwrite
their efforts supporting home ownership purchase programs, affordable housing
rehab grants, and new housing initiatives in the next fiscal year. Historic preservation funds being recommended included $100,000 for the
replacement of the roof at the historic Town Hall Annex, and the Acoaxet
Chapel’s $23,100 request for accessibility improvement work. A $44,345
request from the Westport Historical Society for needed repairs to the Bell
Schoolhouse tower, and another for $11,000 for replacement of rotted sills at
the museum were also recommended unanimously.
The proposed heritage trail would include stops such as the Cuffe homestead and boatyard off Drift Road, his burial
place on Main Road, and the homestead on Old Westport Road once owned by his
father, former slave Cuffe Slocum. Right: The Captain
Paul Cuffe granite monument near the Friends’
Meeting House at 930 Main Road in Central Village.
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